Prayers offered at Dilip Kumar’s ancestral home in Peshawar

Hundreds gathered outside Dilip Kumar’s ancestral home in Peshawar to offer funeral prayers in absentia after the Bollywood legend passed away at 98 on Wednesday.

Fans of the celebrated actor flocked to his ancestral home at Muhalla Khudadad in Peshawar’s Qissa Khwani. Videos of the event were shared on social media by those present.

Journalist Iftikhar Firdous also confirmed the same on Twitter with a video, saying, “Actor Dilip Kumar’s (Yousaf Khan) funeral in absentia offered at his birthplace in Muhalla Khudadad, Qissa Khwani, #Peshawar. Prayers held for him at various points in the city.” 

Kumar, born Mohammed Yusuf Khan in 1922 in Peshawar, now in Pakistan, was cremated with state honours in India. His body was wrapped in the Indian tricolour and a police contingent marched alongside a route lined with fans.

body___3g04wK ArticleBody__element___3UrnEs" data-testid="paragraph-1">Fans crowded outside the crematorium in suburban Mumbai where the actor’s body was taken, hoping to catch one last glimpse of the star of Devdas and Mughal-E-Azam, whose family had moved from what is now Pakistan when he was a child.

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He changed his Muslim name to the Hindi Dilip Kumar for the screen after a suggestion from actress Devika Rani, whose studio, Bombay Talkies, produced his first film.

He is survived by his wife, Saira Banu, a top Bollywood leading lady in the 1960s and 1970s.

At his residence in Mumbai, Bollywood stars thronged to pay their respects, among them actor Shah Rukh Khan, producer Karan Johar and actress Vidya Balan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan both expressed condolences, a rare meeting of minds from countries that have been bitter rivals since the partition of then British-ruled India in 1947.